GOD’S CALLING CARD

In the oriental world, a name meant much more than just a verbal designation or a vocal verbalizing of sounds. A name told something of the character of the person to whom it belonged. To know the name of a person was to have power over him. The names of the various pagan deities were used to call forth their power.

The names of God are not man-made. We read in Genesis 2 of how God created the animals and brought them to man and how it was man who named them. But this is not the case in the names of God. They are given by God Himself. This suggests that they tell us something about Him.

On the day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Temple Choir Director would issue this summons to call the people for this special day of worship and celebration. Their voices would echo over the city walls and out across the hills of Judah. From all over the country, the people would come to Jerusalem. The call was for the people of Israel to come and to worship Elohim.

1. The Various Uses of Elohim.

2. The Various Forms of Elohim.

• El.

• Eloha.

• Elohim.

The world today has become very irreverent toward God. He is called "the man upstairs." Others wish to think of Him as an impersonal force. Philosophers have declared that God is dead or at least irrelevant. These are all false concepts of God. They miss some of the majesty of God. They do not describe the Elohim -- the Strong One. They do not describe the Creator of heaven and earth. They do not describe the One who holds the universe together by His own strength.

It the same way, our own thoughts of God are often too human. We tend to put our own attributes into our concept of God.

• Have you ever thought to yourself: "I don’t know how God puts up with me"? This is a wrong concept of God. God does not put up with anyone. He is absolutely righteous and holy. He does not put up with sin. He deals with sin. He sent His Son to die for sin. He judged sin on the cross.
• Have you ever prayed: "Lord, if you are able to bring this to pass..." To whom do you think you are praying? It is the Strong One -- the God who can accomplish anything and for whom nothing is impossible.

Your concept of God is important. It will determine your response to God. It is only as you have a proper concept of God that you will be able to produce proper fruit in your life.

A shallow, plastic knowledge of God will result in shallow, plastic fruit in your Christian life. Have you ever seen plastic fruit? It looks good. It is shiny and polished. It is only when you try to bite into it that you find out that it is false. It is only an illusion of the real thing. You need to know the real God and have a real relationship with Him so that He can produce real fruit in your life. You need to recognize the God who is there. You need to get to know the Strong One.

Though the name "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" is used in the early pages of the Bible, it is not until the book of Exodus that the meaning of the name is explained. It takes place in the context of God’s revelation of Himself to Moses.

The scene is the Sinai Desert. Into this hot, arid region comes Moses. He is a fugitive from Egypt, having escaped from the consequences of a past murder. He has found refuge in the tents of a wealthy sheik named Jethro. Over the years, he has taken a wife from among the daughters of Jethro and he has settled down to become a simple shepherd.

The years pass by until one day when Moses comes upon a strange sight. It is a bush burning on the slopes of a mountain. The strange thing is not the bush or the fact that it is burning, but that it continues to burn without burning up the bush. His curiosity aroused, Moses moves closer to investigate. As he does, God speaks to him from the midst of the bush.

God first instructs Moses to show proper reverence for the ground upon which he stands. He is to do this by removing his sandals. Forever afterward, the priests would enter the Temple of God barefoot in order to show the same reverence.

Next the Lord identifies Himself to Moses:

Moses had come out of Egypt. The land of Egypt was filled with gods. There was a god of the harvest and a god for the rain and a god for the sun and a god for the river and a god for the cattle. There was a god for everything in Egypt.

But God identifies Himself as the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is the God of Moses’ ancestors.

Hundreds of years earlier, God had appeared to Abraham and had promised Him certain things. The entire history of the Israelite people had been laid out in a detailed prophecy:

Along with those promises, God had involved Himself in an elaborate covenant ritual, binding Himself to Abraham with a legal contract. This involved an ancient ceremony in which several animals were killed and their carcasses cut in two and placed in a long row. The parties involved in the covenant would then walk down the center aisle between the dead carcasses while reciting the terms of the covenant. The idea was that if either party broke the terms of the covenant, he would suffer a similar fate to those animals who had been killed and cut asunder.

This is the kind of covenant into which God had bound Himself to Abraham. He had instructed Abraham to cut the animals in two and arrange them into two groups. Then the presence of the Lord moved down the row between the pieces of the animals as He recited the terms of the covenant.

Now God tells Moses that He is the same God who made the covenant with Abraham. He is the same God who repeated the same promises to Isaac and to Jacob. He is the God of Israel, even though they have become enslaved in Egypt. He is known as the God who promises.

He has not forgotten His promises. He is now going to bring them to fulfillment. Notice what He says to Moses.

Do you see it? These are the same words that the Lord had spoken to Abraham. He now says that He is going to keep the promise that He had made to Abraham. The terms of that covenant will be fulfilled. What God had promised so many hundreds of years earlier would now come to pass.

This was a significant question. In the ancient world, the name of a person or a city or a deity was not without meaning. The name of a person would often describe an attribute of that person. Likewise, the name of a deity would usually indicate some specific attribute of that deity.

For example, the name "Jesus" is a Greek rendition of the Hebrew name "Joshua" and means "Yahweh saves." Thus, to believe in the name of Jesus is to believe in the saving work which His name implies (John 1:12; Acts 3:16).

As Moses confronts God, he asks for a name. There are two answers given.

1. "I AM WHO I AM."

2. "THE LORD" or "YAHWEH."

• This statement indicates that the Patriarchs had an incomplete understanding of the name and its relation to the verb which had just recently been revealed in Exodus 3:14.
• The name was not emphasized in the days of the Patriarchs. In favor of this latter premise, it is noted that, although Yahweh is used often in Genesis, it USUALLY appears in the midst of a narrative rather than in a place where one of the Patriarchs is either speaking or is being addressed. On the other hand, Laban is pictured as using the term Yahweh as he enters into a covenant with Jacob (Genesis 31:49). Indeed, even the mother of Moses has a name which consists of a compound withYahweh in its abbreviated form Yah (Jokhebed).

There is a sense in which all men can be said to be the offspring of God in that He is the Creator of all that exists (Acts 17:29). Yet in a very strict sense, it is only in the pages of the New Testament that we are presented with the specific theme of God as our Father. When Jesus was asked by His disciples as to how they ought to pray, He began with this very personal title for God: "Our Father who art in heaven..."

The words of Jesus are echoed in an Old Testament promise that is cited by the Apostle Paul as he calls Christians to a life of holiness:

That which was only hinted at in the prophets today comes to us in full fruition as we are able to turn to the Lord as our Heavenly Father.